Stop Wasted Spend · ScaleSKUs MCP Academy #01

A search term report is useful only when it helps you make a better decision. In this lesson, we will find searches that spent money without bringing orders, choose the right negative match type, and apply three carefully scoped changes. Start with an ordinary seller question: Which searches are costing me money without bringing orders, and which ones should I stoppaying for?

Start with the reporting dates. Recent clicks can still receive orders later, so a zero-order search from yesterday is not the same as a zero-order search from a settled period. Here, ScaleSkus uses August fifteenth through September thirteenth. The report finds about fifty-four thousand rupees of zero-order spend. That is a review pool, not a promise that every rupee can be saved.

Our first job is to separate genuine waste from searches that need more context. Look across each row: the search, its campaign, clicks, spend, orders, and whether it converts elsewhere. The first three candidates have forty-five to fifty-nine clicks, no attributed orders, and no conversions elsewhere in this account during the same window. Together they account for about five thousand one hundred and eight rupees.

There are also exceptions. A term that converts in another campaign deserves investigation, and a stockout can explain missing orders. Those are different problems from an irrelevant search. Ask the follow-up that determines the action: Why negative exact rather than phrase, and where will it be added? Exact is the narrower intervention. Phrase can block additional searches containing the phrase.

In this example, the evidence supports three specific queries, so we use negative exact in their source ad groups. We also check for existing negatives before adding duplicates. This gives us a small, understandable change that can be reviewed later. Now give a clear instruction: Add those three as negative exact in the ad groups you identified. The result shows each query, its destination, and an applied status.

Two belong to the cashew ad group; the other belongs to the pista ad group. ScaleSkus then checks the opportunity list again. The three queries are no longer offered as new negative opportunities because the account now recognises the changes. Make this a weekly routine. Review a small group of candidates, inspect the exceptions, apply only the changes you can explain, and record the date.

At your next review, look for spend on those queries, overall orders in the affected campaigns, and where the budget is now being used. Allow attribution to settle before judging the outcome. Your practice task is to review three searches, choose a scope for each, and explain one search you would keep. That reasoning is more valuable than simply clearing the largest list.